gm -- >> big fan of the show. >> fantastic. >> nets/knicks, their game is still on. no one can watch it but the game is on. >> what did you learn, mark? >> one of two things happen, either a public pollster will be embarrassed and humiliated or barack obama will be re-elected. >> all right, john, these are not the dwarfs you are looking for. that's a great line. thank you for that one, carl. what time is it? at this moment time for chuck and "the daily rundown. ." the aftermath, dozens of lives lost, millions still without power. hundreds lose their homes in a horrible new york fire and millions more are dealing with damage, floods, and transportation trouble. the cleanup is under way but the shock is far from over even as the first signs of normalcy emerge. after monitoring the storms from the white house, the president

is heading to new jersey. he'll join governor chris christie to see the devastation on the ground himself. meanwhile, governor romney, he's back on the trail in florida. there's still just six days until the election. what does that tell us about where the campaign stakes are really in play this morning. good morning from washington. it's wednesday, october 31st, 2012. happy halloween. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to may first reads of the morning. we're still a long way from recovery. today after hurricane sandy's devastation we're seeing the very first signs of a return to what may be some normalcy as millions attempt to put the pieces back together. this hour new york city mayor michael bloomberg will ring the opening bell at the new york stock exchange which plans to be fully operational despite blackouts and flooding in lower manhattan. two of the area's major airports, jfk and newark in new jersey have opened with some limited service this morning. but new york's laguardia airport remains closed after major

flooding. overall, nearly 19,000 flights canceled since sunday. the presidential campaign is resuming sort of. while the president will spend one more day off the trail focused on sandy re0 covery efforts, governor romney will be back on the trail full time today. he has a packed campaign schedule in florida. hurricane sandy has left at least 46 people dead. early estimates puts the cost of the storm at a staggering $50 billion in damage and lost business. crews are working over time to restore power to 17 affected states, believe it or not. still, there's over 6 billion homes and businesses without power right now. new york city's 108-year-old subway system suffered unprecedented damage and that does remain shut down. the metro transportation authority could not give an estimate tuesday about how long it will take to get the subway up and running. train tunnels under the east river used by amtrak and the long island railroad are flooded and tracks damaged.

workers will have to walk hundreds of miles of track to even begin to assess what needs to be fixed. across the hudson river in hoboken, new jersey, members of the national guard arrived to evacuate residents. half of the town 0 of 50,000 people was flooded leaving the residents stuck in their homes. meanwhile, you're looking at live pictures here of the streets of hoboken. look at all that water. miles of jersey shore, meanwhile, are unrecognizable. homes have been leveled. boardwalks torn up, debris is everywhere. across the state residents are trying to cope. >> within ten minutes we had four feet of water in the basement. it was unbelievable. i never saw anything like that in my life. >> it was the scariest thing i've ever seen. >> pools are ripped in halves. flagpoles are down. sidewalks are gone. >> the water is rushing in. the water is going by and you don't know what to do. >> the president in storm rachaged new jersey offering

residents more of the message he delivered tuesday at red cross headquarters. >> my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape. get resources where they're needed as fast as possible, as hard as possible. >> the president will survey storm damage with republican chris christie who with presidential politics hanging in the balance has had nothing but praise for the federal government and the president. >> the president has been outstanding in this. the president has been all over this. he deserves great credit. he's been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state and not once did he bring up the election. >> among the issues christie plans to bring up, what he said, is how to rebuild a more weather proof jersey shore. >> one of the things i'll be talking to the president about tomorrow is bringing the army corps in immediately to talk to us about the best way to rebuild the jersey shore. >> new york governor andrew cuomo told brian williams last

night that extreme weather is forcing his state and himself to rethink how it rebuilds infrastructure and how it does rebuild the transportation system. >> we have to come to the realization that we are dealing with extreme weather patterns in a way that we haven't seen probably ever. >> the second year in a row the area hit by this stuff. let's not bury our heads in the sand when it comes to something has changed in the atlantic, the climate has changed. it's called climate change, folks. who would have ever thought that it would be obama, by the way, and not governor romney spending time with christie in the final week of the election? that will be the picture of the day, the president and christie. mitt romney is back campaigning in florida today with three rallies scheduled in tampa. coral gables and jacksonville where he'll be joined by former governor jeb bush. with the president in new jersey, romney's returned to the trail is tricky. romney suspended campaigning tuesday. he did hold what the campaign billed as a relief event but it

was in the battleground state of ohio where the governor encouraged donations to the red cross. >> i've had the chaps to speak with some of the governors in the affected areas and they've talked about a lot of people having hard times, and i appreciate the fact that people right here in dayton got up this morning. some went to the dproeshry store, i see, and purchased some things that these families will need. >> given how close this election it, it won't be surprising if the losing side ends up blaming sandy. whether that's fair or not you can argue sandy has elevated the president, stopped 0 the momentum for romney. you could argue that sandy has kept the president off the trail for at least three days. just like the bush folks blame the story, partisans blame the bin laden video in 5504. sandy will get the blame from the losing side or in the case of bush 2000 the side that almost lost. whether sandy deserves the blame or not is a whole other story

political scientists will study that for years on end. the two campaigns continue to battle over the perception of which one of them actually is winning and has the momentum. today new quinnipiac/"new york times"/cbs polls has the president up five points in ohio and then they have florida and virginia in a dead heat with the president up by one point in florida and two points in virginia. then you look at the romney mini surge in the nonbattleground states, maybe romney does have some momentum. think minnesota, michigan and pennsylvania. but then you have to look at the campaign body language and it's hard not to con chewed that r romney's campaign is acting as if they believe they are behind at least when it comes to the state of ohio. for starters, the romney campaign likely would not be airing this controversial jeep ad if they believe they were winning. both chrysler and gm are firing back at romney. chrysler ceo said in a statement jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the united states and will con sstitute th

backbone of the grand. it is inaccurate to suggest anything different. a gm spokesman told the detroit news, quote, we've clearly enter ed some parallel universe during the last few days, no amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish the record of creating jobs in the united states. remember, this new romney jeep ad claims that all factual statements in it, the implication is different, but the statements themselves say jeep is being built in china, which the ad says for the implication, of course, is this idea that they're moving some operations out of ohio to china and that's what both gm and chrysler are fighting back on is that perception. ohio papers pummeling romney for the ad. they called it a ploy in an editorial yesterday and said romney is flailing in ohio. and don't forget that detroit, where the free press is heavily criticized romney is next door to northwest ohio. romney is campaigning in florida today. virginia tomorrow. and those are two states that he

has to win and two states that two weeks ago seemed to be trending ever so slightly to romney. so what about all this talk of expanding the map? most campaigns are now advertising in three new normally reliable democratic states but they're leaning democratic states. let's not pretend they're solid. then this morning a new detroit news poll of likely voters has in michigan showed the president leading romney but only by three points. a new franklin and marshall poll in pennsylvania shows the president up by just four points. this week a minneapolis star tribune poll showed a three-point race in minnesota. the romney campaign says this is evidence they have expanded the map. the obama campaign says this expansion of advertising shows it's a sign that romney has run out of routes to 270 electoral routes in the nine battlegrounds and needs more ways to get there, so they're throwing hail marys.

expanding the map is something the romney campaign has tried to do all along. the question is, is it too late? the bottom line if romney does somehow win nationally by four or five points which is what they believe in the end, then not only will they win the battlegrounds, they will win one, two, maybe three of those leaning states we talked about. throw in oregon. but if this is the one-point race it's a different ball game and those three states probably stay in the leaning column. mitt romney tries to get back in campaign mode today. kicks off his final push to election day. a string of campaign events in a state that they believe is already leaning in their kcolum, the state of florida. peter alexander joins us. all right, peter, how is the campaign reacting to all of these state polls in the last 24 hours particularly in the critical battleground states which show -- don't show the momentum story that they believe they had a week ago? >> reporter: yeah, chuck, you're right. i spoke to two top advisers with the romney campaign about that

very fact and they say they're not so focused on these polls as they are about the actual numbers, the early voting numbers that they say shows the matching or exceeding what john mccain, where he stood at this time four years ago. they point specifically to ohio, cuyahoga county, they say, coal country, an area traditionally democratic, that they say is not going to go in the president's column this time around. nonetheless, they recognize the significance of ohio right now. they will be back there again on friday. he's going to have governor romney with him. 100 surrogates including a lot of family members, some governors and senators as they try to do that as well. to put this into language of one of the romney top advisers the polls, peter, amount to noise at this point. they still feel as confident as ever that they are exactly where they need to be in these waning days. >> isn't this a time them should be in the northwest, essentially

defending southern turf, is that a troublesome time? why shouldn't that be seen as a troublesome time? >> reporter: well, i think you're right. this is all about getting out the vote and they're going to be bouncing across the country. if you notice florida today, virginia tomorrow, ohio on friday, we know this weekend there will likely be a trip out west again to either nevada or colorado and on monday they're going to end this campaign in the exact same place where it began in new hampshire before governor romney votes in his home state of massachusetts on tuesday. what will be interesting to watch, this is the first of three events how he sort of strikes the right tone given the fact that there will be that split screen today of governor romney here campaigning. the president alongside one of romney's top surrogates, chris christie as you noted in new jersey today. a campaign adviser tells me they will strike a positive tone. this will not be a contract message today. they will, again, remind their

supporters of the need to support the red cross and those people in the northeast. it's a delicate balance once again for the governor. >> peter alexander traveling with romney. it looks like the campaign is getting start add a little bit today, probably more forceful when everybody is back on the trail including the president tomorrow. peter, thank you very much. coming up next, we're going live to place that is have been hit hardest by sandy, the jersey shore where the coastline is literally reshaped this morning. the neighborhood of breezy point in queens are where the first water and then fire ripped through that neighborhood. and then it's the streets of new york city where travel is still at a standstill. but first, as we always give it to you before this first break, the schedule of the president and governor romney. the president obviously new jersey today will do an aerial tour. also plans to do an aerial tour with governor christie. mitt romney, of course, all over the state of florida. right now as we go to break those are live pictures. that's hoboken, folks. those are live right now.

that is standing water in the streets of hoboken. we've all had those moments. when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble

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well, here is something you don't see every day. folks, this is the new york sky line where much of lower manhattan is still without power. nearly 2 million people in the dark statewide. that was last night. now along the jersey shore town after town was hammered by this storm. houses removed from the foundation, beaches completely washed away. this is seaside heights, one of the jersey shore's most well-known summer playgrounds. look at the roller coaster. that was on the boardwalk. it's now partially under water. now these are pictures of fires that were burning in

mantoloking. there are no first responders here because the only bridge in and out of that town has been ut off. that was last night. we saw the smoldering fire this morning. we're giving the "today" show viewers a sobering view of the jersey shore. in a city that runs on public transportation, millions of new yorkers will have to find new ways to get around probably for quite a while. the mayor says the subway system could be out until sunday and that's at the early ye. amtrak is resuming some service in new jersey and points south but says there's unprecedented flooding in the train tunnels that go into new york city. service from new york to boston is canceled indefinitely and the express service out for the entire northeast corridor. service on the long island railroad and met the row north railroads are suspended. a bit of good news, jfk and newark would resume limited service this morning although laguardia is closed.

you've seen those pictures of a flooded laguardia. at last count sandy forced the cancellation of more than 18,000 flights. msnbc's richard lui joins me outside a subway station in it lower manhattan. richard, four or five days. on one hand that is unfathomable to most new yorkers. on the other hand that seems completely maybe overly ambitious considering the amount of water they have to deal with. what's the reality? >> reporter: chuck, it certainly seems like it's a high order when you look at the subway stations like this. we're at the south ferry subway station on 0 the southern part of manhattan. that was completely flooded. i want to show you some of the water marks here. this is how high it was at the highest point. it then went down two feet, down a foot and a half. now we're looking at it a day after, two days after, how deep the water is. i dropped the stick. i want to show you, take it to the bottom here. the water about five feet high.

this subway station is connected to brooklyn. i measured it out, about 2.5 million gallons. this is only one of seven subway -- in manhattan that are flooded either fully or partially at the moment. now it's not just the subway system -- [ no audio ] >> we are having a little bit of trouble there, as you can see, trying to to come out and do some -- we use live view technology and sometimes coming out of some of those underground areas is very difficult here and i'm told richard is back so we'll go to him one more time. we did lose you for a moment. i was explaining technology. please continue. where all this water, this 2.5 million gallons of water and this is just one of many, the connection to brooklyn and that's where we lost you at brooklyn. >> reporter: yeah, it is one of seven that were flooded either fully or partially and, chuck,

to given you a sense where we're at, the water here, i don't know if you can see it but at the top there is gasoline-type products floating at the top. you can kind of smell it down here. we're not going to spend too much time here. that's what they'll have to deal with as they pump out this water. in addition to the subway problems that are ahead for mta, and that's the transportation authority here, there's also the car tunnel. there are two of which are closed down right now. the brooklyn battery tunnel is the longest underwater tunnel in north america. that is about 9,000 feet long. chuck, it was filling up like a bathtub during the hurricane when the storm had come through. the amount of water that holds can fill the entire empire state building. there have been some estimations we've been hearing on the ground could be until after thanksgiving before they fix that and of course there's amtrak. we spoke with them a little bit earlier and the situation there, they're hoping to update in the next couple of hours.

>> all right, richard lui in lower manhattan for us this morning. richard, thank you very much. well, the community of seaside heights, that's one of several that were completely cut off prompting an all-day rescue effort to get people off the island. that was led by officials in neighboring toms river. that's where we find nbc's michelle franzen. michelle, we know they're trying to help people in seaside, toms river has its own problems. this is the first full day of cleanup, right? the weather is a little bit clear. everybody can start seeing the devastation firsthand. where do things stand this morning? >> reporter: that's exactly right, chuck. you have sunshine out now and that means the crews, these emergency workers, a lot of the first responders and water teams are heading back out early this morning. to go to the barrier islands that you see off in the distance there. that is that area, the barrier islands they're trying to still reach folks in that area and all along this community. toms river as of last night half of the town was without power

and they still have hundreds of people to rescue in and around this area. so that's what they're focusing in on now. the water, though, has been receding throughout the night and the morning and that means people who may still be trapped here in the mainland area might be able to get out themselves but we're still waiting for an update from the police chief on that. other areas, as you mentioned, seaside heights, you know, hurricane sandy just rearranged the coastline in a dramatic and very sobering fashion. the seaside amusement parks there, the roller coaster and the water, the boardwalk pretty much devastated, destroyed along with homes that were just washed away in that area. then you've got atlantic city. 12 casinos still closed and, of course, president obama set to tour that area with governor chris christie today. >> michelle franzen, thank you very much. i want to show you this. this is staten island. this is a scene reminiscent of the aftermath of katrina.

the nypd was called in to rescue people trapped on their rooftops by rising water. this is taped footage. all five adults and one child were saved from their homes as they were -- as they were trying to get away from the water there. all right. wall street, though, is going to open for business today. that's one of our first signs of normalcy after a two-day shutdown. we'll find out what we can expect, get a preview, plus the nick impact of the storm. mayor michael bloomberg will ring the opening bell and we'll bring that to you live. today's are trivia question. who was the last republican ele elected to the senate from the state of new jersey? the first correct answer will get a follow wednesday from us. a picture of hoboken folks this morning. very sobering to see with all

the clouds gone, helicopters coming up, we now see the true devastation that is still impacting the state of new jersey.

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this is the jersey shore, bay head. we've been using a chopper to show some of this footage that a lot of folks didn't see firsthand the day of, and this is what among the things how the president will be viewing some of the damage today with governor christie and this is like governor christie was so, frankly, shaken up after his press conference, after he took this aerial tour yesterday of the jersey shore. i think we now understand his feelings. on our radar this morning, the storm ravaged states are worried about tuesday's vote. we have some new poll numbers out that show the state ballot and how the election may impact the vote. election officials are dealing

with massive power outages and flooding, so both of which may force votes either to be counted by hand orthopedic the votes to be taken to other places and run optical scan wise so the counting of votes will be delayed. new jersey, they're dealing with the same problems. officials are working to determine if they should just move polling stations completely and stressing that it will likely be days before they know how some counties will handle voting. connecticut's secretary of state is holding a conference call with town clerks and voting registrars to determine if they do need to move some polling locations. west virginia is already talk ing about importing a whole bunch of generators where necessary in order to keep voting stations gone. in massachusetts, the fourth and final debate between senate candidates elizabeth warren and brown canceled because of sandy and they would like to reschedule but brown told reporters they've already had three debates and his campaign was very, very businey at the e of the campaign. finally democrats are leading in the flo/va races.

in ohio, brown holds the lead. it seems like a big lead. maybe bigger than what most people think. tim kaine and george allen, kaine at 50% and allen at 46%. new york mayor michael bloomberg doing something he's done before, more sim l bawlic today, ringing the opening bell on wall street after two days of being off, the financial markets are reopeni reopening. the first time weather had closed the markets for two con second it tiff days since a blizzard back in 1888. all right, becky, what do we expect today in the market? is there going to be pent-up rae action to a whole bunch of other stuff that's not sandy related? sandy is going to have some people trading on that. oh, by the way, isn't there some

jobs -- don't we get the ad coming out? >> adp is tomorrow. they pushed it back by a day because of all the situation with the storm. chuck, you saw the opening bell ring and wall street is going to open higher today. we've been watching the futures all morning long and it looks like the dow will open up by 65 points or so. things have been incredibly orderly and that's saying something. you may have expected this to be more volatility. anything could happen as we get into the trading session. what's been surprising to me at least how orderly this whole process has been to this point. people seem calm and relaxed about things and new york, the stock exchange there is open nor business as usual. of course it's anything but business as usual if you look at large swaths of new jersey, of new york, of other areas affected by the storm and, chuck, we talked yesterday about trying to to get your arms around how big of an economic impact this is. people are still kind of playing the game today, making up numbers, but we should stress that at this point these are all very early estimates. let me give you the latest numbers out there from a couple

different places. equcat came out and said they are expecting $5 billion to $10 billion in insured losses and another $10 billion to $20 billion in economic losses. another firm ihs came out with its own estimates looking for $20 billion in property and another $10 billion to $30 billion in economic damages. but all of these are early numbe numbers. they are ramping up from what we've been expecting-to-days ago, a day ago even from that and we spoke about most of the time the early numbers are under done, that you should really multiply it by 1.5 to 2 times to get a real sense of the numbers as they continue to come in. also, richard, the properties here in new york said his buildings alone he's looking at tens of millions of dollars in damages. these are anecdotal evidence starting to come in. there are going to be some very big losses probably bigger than originally estimated. >> and we have to not forget the psychological impact, do people that live on long island think -- does the real estate value go down because places you lived where you didn't think you had to worry about floods now

two years if a row you've had to worry about flooding. there's all sorts of parts to this you can't calculate yet. >> very long-term effects on all of this and i'm sure you're right from the psychological perspective that will weigh in on it. >> becky, thank you very much. we have much more ahead on how the storm is changing the final days of this campaign. we're going to take a deep dive also into this idea of the expanding map, who is right? and if minnesota, pennsylvania, and michigan are really in play, what does it mean? does romney actually need these states in play? we'll break it all down for you.

right now live pictures of eau claire, wisconsin, where we're expecting paul ryan any minute now. this is his first of three stops in his home state today. it's all about wisconsin. wisconsin, we're going to have numbers coming out tomorrow in wisconsin, by the way. how tight is this race? vice president biden is in nor floor. makes two stops there. first sarasota and ocala. it's usually republican country there. all right. how do you get to 270? it's basically what we've been talking about all year long, what states are in play, what are not. today we'll take a deep dive into the battleground map to see whether or not it is getting bigger as we near the finish line and whether it needs to get bigger if romney will win. the campaign says momentum is on their side and they are expanding the maps because they're on a roll and watch out, they could win over 300 electoral votes. the president's campaign says it's all a bluff.

romney's campaign started running ads in minnesota and pennsylvania. super pacs up in michigan. ann romney campaigning in michigan. a state the president won by 16 points. not going to this time. as i told you restore our future up there as well. romney campaign released a statement indicating they intend to put real pressure on the president in these states while the obama campaign would like to wish it's 2008. the reality is they are forced to play some defense in more states that they once believed were safer for the president. the obama campaign is taking the threat seriously enough that they sent president clinton to minnesota tuesday. they're buying airtime in all three states that romney would like to make xcompetitive. but the president's campaign, they called romney's move desperate. in a video released yesterday, the race was framed to his volunteers this way. >> we are ahead or tied in every single battleground state. that means mitt romney has to

win not only the tossups but a couple states where we have a clear lead to have any chance of winning the presidency. >> messina ran through the battleground states but explicitly did not mention michigan or minnesota. he says, quote, they are throwing money at states where they never built an organization and have been losing for two years. the romney campaign and its allies' decision to go up with advertising in michigan, pennsylvania, and minnesota is a decision made out of weakness not strength. well, let's look and see what happens if you put these states in play. i'm going to mess around here. we have our battleground map. we're going to go to our sliders here so let's move those states -- let's move them in tossup so we can play around here. so let's move michigan. let's move minnesota. and let's move pennsylvania. and let me show you the importance of why the battleground map needs to expand if you're romney, if you believe this is a rough game of 270.

first let's begin by putting those states back in the obama column here for a minute. and i will explain. so that is at 243. the issue is this, you have the romney campaign believing virginia and florida is theirs. they really do believe they will r win colorado. if you moved iowa, new hampshire, and wisconsin over to there, hiohio is the one in pla. it could put either one of them over the top. it could put romney at 275 or it could put obama at 281. let's say you believe you can't win ohio if you're the mitt romney campaign. you have to take away 12 electoral votes from him. well, boy, pennsylvania, you could steal that. look at how that would change the map. and that would given you more. but pennsylvania is not going to

work, well, how about the state of your birth. if you couldn't take michigan, again, you could change the math. boy, did they take a long time to mess with that. i'm going to give them more credit. there is a republican super pac laying the groundwork in minnesota for months called the american future fund, it's a bunch of folks mostly out of iowa but they've been pouring money in here and have kept the race close. this would be another path. now they would still be short, but then you've got all of these other options for romney to get to 270. it could be that he goes and carries sort of the adopted semihome, new hampshire, where he will have his last rally or, all right, iowa is a place they feel they've been able to do. the point is this, and here is the point of the expanded map, whether romney is bluffing or not, the bottom line is this. he needed different paths to get to 270.

the conventional paths are tough because if you take ohio away, as i showed, and that's in the obama column, then he has all sorts of other problems to get to 270 and there is a necessity to find these states. and, by the way, folks, when i'm doing this, i'm not saying this is where nbc says the race is right now. i'm going through scenarios so don't overreact on twitter. i know you like to do that. one final point about the expanded battleground state maps f. romney comes up short and ohio proves to be the critical state and they didn't have any other path to 270 will they look back six months ago and say to themselves, imagine had they built an organization in pennsylvania, minnesota and michigan, suffered the idea they couldn't win, couldn't win, couldn't win but stubbornly stayed there ala obama in north carolina, and guess where north carolina is today? still tight. would they be in a better position today to take advantage of this momentum? that's a question they could be asking themselves if they come up short on election day in

boston. our political panel will be here next. normalcy starts to return on the campaign trail plus some staggering hurricane news. 13 named storms and counting this year. this is the third straight year we've been at 18 or 19. we've only done that two other times in my lifetime of 40 years. but first, the white house soup of the day, chicken noodle. we'll be right back. we'll leave you with one of those pictures, again. these pictures, these aerial pictures of new jersey. now you understand why governor chr christie and so many others in new jersey frankly are pretty shaken up about how bad this storm devastate that had state. begin. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8.

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jersey shore. this is seaside heights, new jersey. natalie morales was surveying the damage there from high above this morning. here is what she was seeing at the time. take a listen. >> reporter: when we zoom out and see just the homes and the structures, the lives that have been completely destroyed by this, you really get a sense of just a small part of the damage because this is just one community. but what we see here goes on for hundreds of miles along the eastern seaboard. >> the aerial shots, this is the first stuff we've been seeing today. yesterday you couldn't really get up in helicopters, news folks couldn't do it. it wasn't very safe. we know that some folks like governor christie did and now you sort of understand his reaction later in the day and later in the evening. hurricane sandy put a pause on politics, but it's not lasting very long. frankly the calendar says it can't last long. mitt romney is in florida. president obama will be in new jersey. he'll get that firsthand look

himself going on chopper with governor christie. joining us now political editor perry, anita dunn, former white house communications director for president obama and msnbc senior editor mark murray. we have one other person who was going to join us, governor uhrlach is caught in traffic. not everything is working so well. i want to start with this battle about the map. i have a feeling i know what anita's opinion is about this issue. >> i'm not going to shave my mustache. >> there is evidence to back up both and the romney campaign believes momentum. our own history has shown candidates, there are challengers, and the whole thing happens and the whole thing won't move. is that what we're seeing or is this a desperate attempt to what's going on? >> chuck, look at the poll numbers. there is serious tightening in these states, the lean

democratic column for quite a while right now. but it is important to note that president obama actually leads still in all of them and, in fact, the margins we're often seeing look close to what john kerry carried those states in 2004 versus 2008. but overall this is something -- this is the recognition the power the super pacs are playing. the pro-romney restore in play. other super pacs going in there and that's opened up things a little bit. the biggest question, why didn't we see these moves months ago? >> let me ask you something, are you concerned -- look, the fact of the matter is and i've done some of the math, it is possible and it's not like an out there scenario, that mitt romney could win the national vote by a point and you guys win the electoral college. that would make governing in the second term difficult, would it not? >> i don't know. there is recent precedent for that happening and i think -- >> for six months it was tough

for him to govern. >> and on the other hand i think that there's always a time when the country pulls together after an election. i think one thing that hurricane sandy has shown this week is that elect ed officials can ris above their politics, pull together as you look at the extraordinary co-op 0 racial you've seen between chris christie, mike bloomberg, cory booker, three politicians who are very strong leaders but often -- andrew cuomo. chris christie and president obama today touring flood ravaged new jersey. last week chris christie was on the trail attacking president obama. i think that people after this e election, whoever wins, and i believe barack obama will and i actually think this money into the states is a very expensive too much money in the system version of somebody putting an ad up trying to drive press coverage. >> interesting. >> what they're trying to do is drive you guys to a momentum story. >> perry, i want to go back actually to the storm, because i want to play something bill clinton said yesterday and it's something we haven't heard on the campaign trail from either candidate on a specific topic.

let me show you and let you hear what president clinton said. >> in the first debate, the try up much of the moderate mitt romney, you know what he did? he ridiculed the president, ridiculed the president, for his efforts to fight global warming in economically beneficial ways. he said, oh, you're going to turn back the seas. and in my part of america we would like it if someone could have done that yesterday. >> perry, it was interesting, governor cuomo brought it up with brian williams, governor christie had said he's going to, look, we have to get the army corps -- we have to build the jersey shore differently because of the climate. climate change has not been something the president has brought up anymore and there was the other line mitt romney said the rise of the oceans -- does sandy change the conversation? >> i don't think it does very late politically.

it should. on some levels the regret for candidates and we as a press have not covered this huge issue in the way we should have. a huge issue we have not done as much as we should have done on it. >> i want to show you that line graph. this is an obsession of mine. i grew up in miami. i follow the named storms. in the '70s named storms, you get a name of a hurricane when it's a tropical storm or it's a hurricane. in the '70s the average was just under eight. in the '80s the average for that decade for each year was just under nine. then it jumps to just under 11. and then the first part of this decade, look at this. just under 15 and then the first three years of this decade 19, 18, anita, you came in talking about climate change but the president did back off because it became toxic, did it not? >> chuck todd, here is what's happened which was after he pushed very hard and we actually passed a significant bill in the house of representatives as the political climate deteriorated

it became clear the president would have to do what he could on his own. i have to tell you the emissions standard that voluntarily industry agreed to is probably the single biggest thing that's happened when it comes to reduc gases in this country and will be for a while unless there is political pressure and unless everyone steps up and covers this issue. but it's not something the president walked away from. it's something congress basically said they weren't going to act on. >> it is interesting the politics in a tough economic environment, the first thing that goes is the environment. it just is, fair or unfair. >> the house of representatives under democratic control was able to pass that cap in trade legislation. look no further than missouri or virginia where you had democratic senators who had big coal industries who were probably a little scared of actually going on legislation like that. >> we're going to take a break. when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about cars. anyway, trivia time. we asked the last republican

elected from new jersey. the answer, clifford p. case. he was first elected to the senate in 1954 and he served until new jersey republicans rejected him for a fifth term in the primary. the state hasn't elected a republican senator yesterday and chris christie was the first republican to get over 50% in over 20 years when he won. we'll be right back. ♪ i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios

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let's bring back the panel. okay, sandy's impact, anita dunn, win or lose, do you think the losing side blames that sandy will have had an impact on how the last week of this campaign went? >> well, they shouldn't. >> you don't believe it will change anything? >> i believe everything that happens in a campaign is part of the overall campaign and part of the overall narrative. it's a little like the end of the football game. if you're blaming losing on one call, then you didn't play well.

>> something else happened. >> something else happened, yes. and i think frankly part of being president is being able to react to unexpected events. >> and deal with them, mark murray, the fact is, if you're the romney campaign, you would have preferred three or four days of press coverage of saying, hey, does romney have momentum or not? is it the candidate of change versus the candidate status quo. all that is gone for three or four days. >> you can argue how many mitt romney has actually had over the past week but they had been milking that story for all it's worth. >> and it would have been a lead story last night. >> look at what mitt romney's stump speech was, talking about change. for those who look at mitt romney, what the new mitt romney is. he looked good. everything seemed to be good. >> very quickly. >> important to note that half the people in ohio are going to vote early and a big number in north carolina are too. >> some of this is probably baked in. shameless plugs, anita, you go first. >> shameless plugs for the two auto companies that stood up for

a little truth in advertising in this country. and actually had the nerve to slap down a presidential candidate who lied about them. >> that was something else. >> the first responders are doing a great job. >> no doubt about that. >> plug to my son on his first halloween. he's going as a monkey, little baby caleb is going t.o. fun tonight. >> very good. excellent, halloween. the power is back on in my neighborhood this morning which means i think they're going to get trick-or-treating. hopefully i'll get there. stick with msnbc all day long for continuing coverage on the cleanup from sandy and how it is affecting this presidential race with six days to go. coming up, chris jansing, bye-bye. there are a million reasons why. but your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently.

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